January 2010

Blair Just Incompetent: No He's a Liar and a Criminal

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Patrick Coburn, whom I’m about to follow on Ian Master’s radio show on KPFK, writes that Tony Blair is more incompetent than dishonest. Examples: he didn’t know toppling Saddam Hussein would benefit Iran’s government. He didn’t know the occupation of Iraq would fail. He didn’t know Zarqawi went to Kurdistan and does not constitute a link between Iraq and 9-11. He didn’t know the Americans were just as incompetent as himself.

But we know that Blair agreed read more

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Rep Payne: Obama Makes War OK

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Congressman Payne: I Won’t Oppose War Money Because Obama’s President

Congressman Donald Payne (D., N.J.) has voted against war funding bills for years. Last summer he was one of 32 heroes to vote No under intense pressure from the White House to vote Yes. When I asked him a couple of years ago to sign onto impeaching Bush he immediately said “Sure!” and he did it.

Today I asked him if he would commit to voting No on the next $33 billion for war. I asked him privately, read more

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Now We Impeach Jay Bybee

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By David Swanson

No one disputes that Jay Bybee’s name is at the bottom of memos that were, and to some extent still are, treated as laws which legalized aggressive war at the pleasure of a president and a variety of acts of torture. For many months the House Judiciary Committee has had two excuses for not impeaching Judge Bybee, even while proceeding with the impeachments of a judge for groping and another judge for petty corruption. The private excuse has been that impeaching Bybee would read more

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Tony Blair Forced to Testify on War Crimes

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By David Swanson

Former prime minister Tony Blair’s testimony was streamed live at 4:30 a.m. ET at the Iraq Inquiry website and on other sites, such as the UK newspaper the Telegraph which allowed viewers to rank Blair’s responses on a “Lie Meter”. Telegraph readers’ top desired questions pre-hearing were:

* What was the real motivation for invading Iraq?
* Why did you not act like a Statesman and stand up to Bush?
* Do you think the world is a read more

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Pew: 26% know what filibuster is. Zogby: 32% want to eliminate it.

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The filibuster rule just isn’t very popular among those who know what it is. Pew found that 26% of Americans knew how many votes were needed to get around a filibuster. Zogby reports that 32% want to get rid of that anti-democratic blockage.

And these two polls were probably looking at samples of the same population, given Zogby’s findings confirming vast ignorance: Only 34% knew Republicans use the filibuster more. Only 28% knew the House represented public opinion better than read more

Pew: 26% know what filibuster is. Zogby: 32% want to eliminate it. Read More »

GRIT TV: Citizens United, Iraq, Howard Zinn

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Obama’s State of the Union speech called for jobs, health care reform, and fighting the influence of corporations on our government processes, but after the past year, many progressives are skeptical that he’ll actually fight. He did include a sharp critique in his speech of the decision of the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a decision that Steve Cobble called an “intellectually dishonest power grab.”

Cobble, a fellow at the read more

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